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Divinity Candy
Two cups granulated sugar, one-half cup Karo corn syrup, one cup boiling water. Cook until it threads, then beat the whites of two eggs to a stiff froth; pour the syrup into the whites of the eggs, beating constantly; stir in one pound of chopped nut meats, beat until cool and turn into buttered pan.
— Miss Maude A. Conkling
A standard divinity, but the doneness cue in the original will not set. Read the first point before you start.
- "Cook until it threads" is too softThread stage is around 230F, which yields a syrup that never firms up; divinity needs the syrup taken well past that, to about 250-260F (hard ball) on a candy thermometer. Cooked only to the thread, the mixture will stay a sticky spoonable fluff no matter how long you beat it.
- KaroStill sold and still the same thing: light corn syrup. It is there to keep the sucrose from crystallising, so do not swap in honey or maple syrup, which behave differently and will change both the set and the colour.
- A cup of water is a lotTwo cups sugar to one cup water is a thin syrup by modern proportions and will take a good while to boil down to firm ball. Use a saucepan with room to climb, and do not stir once it comes to the boil.
- One pound of nutsThat is roughly four cups of chopped meats against a batch that most modern divinity recipes would load with about one cup. The result is closer to a nut confection than a fluff; halve it if you want the candy to read as divinity. The recipe does not specify a nut; walnuts or pecans are the usual choices.
- BeatingThe syrup must go into the whites in a thin steady stream while the mixer runs, and the beating continues until the mass loses its gloss and holds a peak — ten to twelve minutes with a stand mixer, considerably longer by hand. Stop too soon and it will not hold its shape; go too far and it seizes in the bowl.
- HumidityDivinity fails on damp days. The candy pulls moisture from the air and stays tacky, so pick a dry day or expect a soft result.
- Yield and finishingThis makes something over two pounds of candy. An 8x8 buttered pan gives a good depth for cutting into squares once set; alternatively drop it in spoonfuls onto parchment while still warm and workable.
- Egg whitesThe hot syrup does most of the work of cooking them, but it is not a controlled pasteurisation. If you are serving anyone who should avoid undercooked egg, use pasteurised whites.
Divinity belongs to a family of American beaten-egg-white candies — nougat, sea foam, the brown-sugar version — that became practical in home kitchens only after cheap granulated sugar and, crucially, commercial glucose syrup arrived. Karo was introduced in the early years of the twentieth century and its name in a community-cookbook receipt is a decent rough marker of date; before it, cooks fought crystallisation with cream of tartar or vinegar. The candy's appearance here, credited by name to Miss Conkling, fits its reputation: divinity was a Christmas and church-social sweet. The name is generally taken as plain hyperbole about the taste rather than anything traceable to a person or place.